Dear Gold rank players who inhabit Silver and Bronze districts...

Ilasia

Posted 21 April 2012 - 04:29 AM

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They need to make gold hard to get. It's not. It seems like everyone with a kd and a winratio over 1:1 automatically gets gold. That's not very hard to get. I see myself and my team as fairly competent players, but I know I'm the worst player of the 5 people that play together, and I don't think I deserve gold, I got carried there. They need to make gold threat matter, that way only the elite players would get gold, everyone who is average would be silver, and everyone who is bad would be bronze/green. That would probably make the true golds want to play in the gold districts, since the people that would actually be gold is the people who appreciate a challenge and doesn't just want to pubstomp noobs.

Posted 21 April 2012 - 04:55 AM

Kimiko

Posted 21 April 2012 - 05:02 AM

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I'm 100% certain. Pilate could confirm it if you like. The reason no one else comes up with info like this is very few people dig into the sdd.bin, especially now that it's encrypted. In 1.6.x it was exactly G3 and up, it's now just a hair over S10 and up. 22.7 and up for gold, when S10 was 22.138 and up. G1 was 24.004, so it's now about 30% into S10 and up, to be specific.

They need to make gold hard to get. It's not. It seems like everyone with a kd and a winratio over 1:1 automatically gets gold. That's not very hard to get. I see myself and my team as fairly competent players, but I know I'm the worst player of the 5 people that play together, and I don't think I deserve gold, I got carried there. They need to make gold threat matter, that way only the elite players would get gold, everyone who is average would be silver, and everyone who is bad would be bronze/green. That would probably make the true golds want to play in the gold districts, since the people that would actually be gold is the people who appreciate a challenge and doesn't just want to pubstomp noobs.

If you make gold hard to get (say, G8+), there won't be any gold districts. There would never be enough golds online at the same time to push the average over to gold, and they'd always take reduced rewards or be in lower districts. High golds complained about having to take reduced rewards because the gold servers were empty, this is the fix, and it works well so far as I can see. We had 3 gold financials for a brief bit tonight on Colby, and had 2 full gold financials well past prime time. I just logged for the night, and there were still 2 going, though one had nearly died the other remained full. This is MUCH better than the usual population at this time, which would be maybe 20 people in the gold district.

AzureSkies

Posted 21 April 2012 - 05:24 AM

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It's been stated well enough already, but here's my reply to one of the last iterations of this complaint:

To not be punished as I level my crim, I always choose the recommended district (and do so now on my r198 Enf with the 1.7 update). I've been surprised to see it mostly populated by silvers and end up constantly in 1vrs2 1vrs3, 2vrs5 matches against silvers/bronzes although I chose the recommended district. Do you think I just want to mow down bronze/silver guys who've no clue what's going on yet and am I going to get any better with that kind of opposition?

I've gotten yelled at for being there when in fact it's the only recommended district I can go in and level contacts and I got there through auto-select. So, don't just assume the golds there are trying to exploit lower ranks. In my opinion, things have gotten more and more broken, but the highs in the game are just enough to keep me from rage quitting with the frequent lows.

I miss the silver days of learning things and fighting it out each battle. But I think the way the game works, once you get past the learning curve and start winning more frequently you'll never have a fair match again (either mowing down low ranks who don't stand a chance, constantly outnumbered by average ranks you mow down but can't keep away enough to complete tasks, or in camping/luck matches against experienced golds where the outcome depends on who spawns closest to the obj).

Those of you complaining about things now have it pretty easy to get to gold or avoid it. Don't discredit those before who played and were once new, too, and fought their way up. Learn from them and apply it when you're the big fish. If you want it easy from the start play something else.

-Rachel-

Posted 21 April 2012 - 06:21 AM

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You misunderstand how matchmaking works. Not all golds are equal, and just because you have a gold icon when your hidden threat is S10 doesn't mean it will 1v1 you against a G10 with no backup option. Matchmaking hasn't changed, just the visible threat has. You're fighting the exact same kind of opposition now as pre-patch, with the exact same options for backup, the only thing changing the visible threat does is make more gold districts, for less gold players forced to go elsewhere and deal with reduced rewards.

Matchmaking has actually tightened up a bit since they moved to this system when they hid threat levels. Before, when you could see a more specific threat, the game knew the district would have a wide range of threats, and was more lenient with what it considered a "fair" matchup. After district segregation, they tightened it up a bit, letting players call backup for a smaller skill gap. This hasn't changed with the most recent modification, and a group of 4 low golds (all silver pre-1.7.0) would be able to call backup against 4 high golds (and likely able to call backup against 3 high golds, depending on how high).

(edit)To be specific, even before when you could see B1 through G10, there was more to the threat than what you saw. There's a threat value that goes from -100 to +100 (though, +100 is essentially impossible to get... Highest I'm aware of was around +64, and G10 was around +54). Matchmaking uses this value to pair you against people. Gold is now around +22 and up.

If you make gold hard to get (say, G8+), there won't be any gold districts. There would never be enough golds online at the same time to push the average over to gold, and they'd always take reduced rewards or be in lower districts. High golds complained about having to take reduced rewards because the gold servers were empty, this is the fix, and it works well so far as I can see. We had 3 gold financials for a brief bit tonight on Colby, and had 2 full gold financials well past prime time. I just logged for the night, and there were still 2 going, though one had nearly died the other remained full. This is MUCH better than the usual population at this time, which would be maybe 20 people in the gold district.

All you're doing is proving to me that the threat-specific districts are a complete failure in design. I appreciated their intent, and I loved the first 5-6 hours of it before the kiddies got home, it was the best APB I've ever had. But the system is inherently deeply flawed, and has actually made the situation worse in every way. I thank the devs for trying to come up with a solution, but feeling it necessary to lower the requirements for gold TL is probably a good sign that this is a total wash. They need to roll it back and go back to the drawing board.

oblo

Posted 21 April 2012 - 03:00 PM

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All you're doing is proving to me that the threat-specific districts are a complete failure in design. I appreciated their intent, and I loved the first 5-6 hours of it before the kiddies got home, it was the best APB I've ever had. But the system is inherently deeply flawed, and has actually made the situation worse in every way. I thank the devs for trying to come up with a solution, but feeling it necessary to lower the requirements for gold TL is probably a good sign that this is a total wash. They need to roll it back and go back to the drawing board.

Moosh N Twist

Posted 21 April 2012 - 02:51 PM

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I join my ONLY gold district for Waterfront today. Change my gun setup and spawn my car. Drive out of the parking garage and what do I see? 9 silvers before I saw a single Gold player. Stop complaining about us invading you guys. Today I had every group have at least one silver, it's gosh darning stupid. You complain and complain about us gosh darning you over, but how about trying this one out for once:

Yeah, so you say we ruin your districts. But what about you coming into OUR districts? We don't come onto the forums and complain about it. You need to stop worrying and just freakin play. This game isn't balanced around being "fair" in any aspect at all. Not one aspect is fair. If you can show me one that is fair and have actual proof, then congrats. Problem is missions, team sizes, mission locations, etc are all unfair. That is how the game is, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you get mommy on.

Kimiko

Posted 21 April 2012 - 03:15 PM

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All you're doing is proving to me that the threat-specific districts are a complete failure in design. I appreciated their intent, and I loved the first 5-6 hours of it before the kiddies got home, it was the best APB I've ever had. But the system is inherently deeply flawed, and has actually made the situation worse in every way. I thank the devs for trying to come up with a solution, but feeling it necessary to lower the requirements for gold TL is probably a good sign that this is a total wash. They need to roll it back and go back to the drawing board.

I disagree with that entirely. Since the threat segregation, I've seen FAR more balanced matches, and get opposition FAR quicker. Prior to the segregation, I could sit for 20-30 minutes doing missions before I ever got opp, and that was only in a duo. I've actually done missions for 20mins solo a few times without seeing opp, before I gave up and quit. Before, I'd get thrown into constant 2v1, 3v1, 5v2, 6v2, 7v2 matches, since segregation those are incredibly rare.

Segregation made the game FAR more playable for anyone that was mid- to high-gold, and does a much better job at keeping green/bronze players from having to face us. That's definitely a win on both accounts.

Ryun

Posted 21 April 2012 - 05:09 PM

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This topic is pointless unless it's going to result in the outright overhaul of the threat system.

There are people in districts they're not supposed to be because G1 made it that way. If you try to use the auto-select to join a district it will put you in any district it damn well feels like. If the gold district is too empty or full it selects one entirely at random, usually starting at the next highest threat. If one of the silver districts is full, it'll put people in GREEN districts sometimes. There's no rhyme or reason to it.

The only way they'll ever work is if there's one district for each threat with an unlimited population size. That's the kind of system that this specific ranking method was designed for. If that's not feasible, scrap it.

Edited by Ryun, 21 April 2012 - 05:38 PM.

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alpha172

Posted 21 April 2012 - 05:15 PM

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And other arguments, such as "There is nothing but hackers and clanstompers on Gold districts!"

I, the great Masich, annoyer of Admins, botherer of forum mods, self-important, self-entitled Australian scumbag who really shouldn't be awake at 5-goddamn-AM this morning, have found the answer to your problems.

But first, allow me to extrapolate with some exposition, because I love reading my own text:

We all know there is a bit of a problem going around in the Silver and Bronze districts as of late. That problem is called Gold players. Gold players have earned their rank by being either 1) extremely lucky 2) very good at the game 3) in possession of far too much free time or 4) cheaters.

All in all, they are Gold rank because they have proven themselves to be more effective at this game than Silver and Bronze players.

Now I myself am Silver rank. I'm not an ace sharpshooter, I can't sprint-shoot or cook grenades like the best of them. I use an OCA and Perc's because I'm lazy and can't aim. I drive a Vegas and 90% of what I make in-game goes towards spawning new ones because I can't drive it worth a dime.

Sure, I'm not exactly a noob, I rack up my fair share of kills and mission wins, I have my odd good streak. But I am certainly no Gold rank, either. My rating isn't even 100 yet, I haven't unlocked the majority of the weapons and mods from contacts. I'm Silver rank and happiest when I'm in a team of Silvers against a team of Silvers.

So naturally, I get a bit peeved when Gold rank players jump into my matches and either stomp all over me and my team or hog all the glory for themselves.

And as of late, this seems to be happening every bloody mission I get dispatched into.

And the reason for this is definitely not because I'm such a badass that I need a Gold rank to take care of me, I'm not, every time I go against Golds I find myself staring at character names and weapon icons against a blank screen listening to the same 6 auctionhouse kill themes over and over.

And I know I'm not alone here. /d is full, utterly full of people such as myself complaining about all the friggen Golds in the Silver and Bronze districts. Players who jump up and down on the face of fairness and purposely go against the very system designed to make the game more enjoyable.

So, why do you Golds do it? Well, the most common excuse you people come up with is what I listed in my sub-title:

"Gold districts are too empty! I always get matched 1v1!"

Or, on occasion;

"There is nothing but hackers and clanstompers on Gold districts!"

And it just leaves me shaking my head in dismay.

People blame G1 for it, people blame hackers, people blame clans. I've even seen people blaming lower-ranked players (although I couldn't fathom how, exactly.) And really, it's none of these things. It isn't even the Threat System's fault! Granted, the Threat System is horrible. But on this occasion, the dismay you Gold players keep speaking of isn't the fault of the game.

It's your fault.

Yes, you, the r195 Gold Rank player who sits in Silver or Bronze districts and complains about how empty and desolate the Gold district is!

The Gold district is empty because you all refuse to enter it!!!

This is mind numbingly simple, it's basic mathematics. I mean, come on, this is an 18+ rated game, people, are you telling me none of you got past 4th grade?

Apparently so, because you all seem incapable of understanding basic subtraction. Allow me, the great Masich, to break it down for you:

When you have a container that is full (the Gold district) and you take away everything inside it (the Gold players) and put them elsewhere (the Silver and Bronze districts) then the original container (the Gold district, again, just in case you were distracted by something shiny) will be empty!

See? Simple logic, simple math. Now I know that subtraction might be a bit beyond some of you, but just read over that a few times, maybe count it out on your fingers. It's quite easy to understand.

The empty district? The fact you never get matched against people in it? It's your fault! By joining Silver and Bronze districts to avoid this problem, you are making the problem worse!

"So, what is the solution? Oh great and mighty Masich who is the most handsome and lovely person ever to grace the face of this humble forum?" I hear you calling as you tear off your clothing and expose to me your rippling, Gold-rank pecs and six-packs to earn my affections.

Why, it's rather simple, I say, using you as a footrest and pouring myself a glass of scotch because I'm classy like that:

Step one: Get the hell out of the Silver and Bronze districts - nobody damn well wants you there!

Step two: Pat yourself on the back and have a celebratory sandwich for making it past step one.

Step three: Contact every Gold rank player you know.

Step four: Join the Gold district, and get them to join it too.

Step five: If steps one through four were completed by everybody simultaneously, then the Gold district will be full, solving your "I'm always matched in 1v1/against hackers/clans!" problems. Also, you will have had a sandwich, and that's always a plus.

See? Problem goddamn solved! You Gold ranks get to play against full teams of not-hackers and us Silver and Bronze players don't have to deal with you pricks OSMAW'ing us to death every half-bloody-second in between moaning about how empty your friggen Gold district is!

And yes, as it happens, I am the second coming of Christ.

This condescending, hate filled rant was brought to you by Fade Bespoke Suits "Because a Gentleman is Not one Without One!" from representative and CEO: Masich Freud. If you wish to contact Masich Freud for purposes such as "Shooting at him.", "Swearing at him." or "Both." then please visit Joker NA East.

Thanks for reading, Piece out.

Could not be bothered reading that whole block of text because I don't get paid and like to point out that some gold players like to hang around in Silver/Bronze district is because: They play from Australia or somewhere far (350-380ms); It is possible bullets sometimes don't register but when it does, it takes time and bullets that are shot the last few seconds don't register if the shooter dies right after. No gold servers. Filled with aimbots. Gold servers full. Many don't like the 1v1 system with no backup.

I personally play on silver districts as a gold because i'm stuck with over 350ms+, there's no character transfer and I'm not starting new aftering clocking over 800 hours and spent over a hundred dollars in armas. The funny thing is, I've tried to dethreat two times (losing more than 20 matches in a row deliberately by playing crap) but I'm still gold - must be a bug.

oblo

Posted 21 April 2012 - 06:49 PM

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I disagree with that entirely. Since the threat segregation, I've seen FAR more balanced matches, and get opposition FAR quicker. Prior to the segregation, I could sit for 20-30 minutes doing missions before I ever got opp, and that was only in a duo. I've actually done missions for 20mins solo a few times without seeing opp, before I gave up and quit. Before, I'd get thrown into constant 2v1, 3v1, 5v2, 6v2, 7v2 matches, since segregation those are incredibly rare.

Segregation made the game FAR more playable for anyone that was mid- to high-gold, and does a much better job at keeping green/bronze players from having to face us. That's definitely a win on both accounts.

Yeah the thing is, mid to high gold is like 10% (just a guess) of the playerbase, for anyone else the game got way worse, I can't keep track of friends leaving the game because of the district colors... I'd call that a serious problem.

True though, most games aren't as imbalanced in numbers as before, which means as much as higher golds having an easier time getting opposition and destroying teams, anyone else having a harder time getting enough back-up to stand a chance or actually have some fun.

Great succes.

Srsly, imho you have to be blind to not see how this is ruining the game... And don't call me a crybaby or whatnot, I played in gold district all night long because that way the silvers in our group only got 5% reduction instead of the gold ones getting -25%, I won't leave the game because of it, I just love it too much, but it won't be long before I have zero friends left in it.

Got bumped down to silver last match, guess I should be happy, should be easier to get full rewards or only the -5% now...

Sushin

Posted 21 April 2012 - 07:30 PM

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I went to a green district the other day, thinking it was gold. First trainee I saw I was like "Wow. Poor guy. How did he even get here?"
Then I was matched against A trainee and 2 bronze before realizing I was in the wrong district.

My friends took me to a silver district the other day, and after spending the whole week in the gold district, it somehow ended up being much, much harder. Maybe it was just my luck, but I ran into several really skilled crim teams and didn't win a single match while I was there. They were all gold. Funny huh?

They should remove gold districts entirely, and just replace them with a no restriction district type. That way they can lock silver districts to only silver and below, same with the others, and all players can still play together if they wish.

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Poperon

Posted 21 April 2012 - 07:18 PM

Now go gosh darn yourself, preferably using the high horse you're currently sat on.

How do you think I feel having the Soviet national anthem playing every 20 seconds? In fact I'm going to download it, put it on repeat and stare at a grey screen for a couple of hours.

I tell you what it'll be a hell of a lot more fun than playing this game right now so don't you dare preach to me about what district I should be playing in cus I'll go wherever the gosh darn I want, usually to a district where I can at least get a 1:1 kdr. I used to alternate between silver and gold threat, I enjoyed it. Since 1.7.0 I've been embedded further into gold, I can't get rid of it legitimately and it's making playing this game a complete misery.

So tell me Masich in your infinite wisdom, other than illegally deliberately dethreating, what do you recommend I do?

What if they're better players than you are?

Just move on to another match, learn from your mistakes on the last mission, and keep trying. If any of these doesn't work, just log off because that's not a good day for you. (or try to log in later in the day, maybe your concentration isn't right at the time)

Kimiko

Posted 21 April 2012 - 07:22 PM

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True though, most games aren't as imbalanced in numbers as before, which means as much as higher golds having an easier time getting opposition and destroying teams, anyone else having a harder time getting enough back-up to stand a chance or actually have some fun.

Great succes.

Srsly, imho you have to be blind to not see how this is ruining the game... And don't call me a crybaby or whatnot, I played in gold district all night long because that way the silvers in our group only got 5% reduction instead of the gold ones getting -25%, I won't leave the game because of it, I just love it too much, but it won't be long before I have zero friends left in it.

The segregation is far from ruining the game. The reason that mid- to high-golds get opp regularly now isn't because the game throws low-threat players at them more often, matchmaking is essentially the same as before segregation (I actually think matchmaking was tightened up, meaning now it takes less of a gap before you're able to call backup, which is a good thing). We get more opp now because there's more higher threat players in the same district, which means matchmaking can actually find players to put against us.

Before segregation, with roughly 10% of the population gold, that means an average server had 5 gold players per side. I forget the exact numbers at the time, I can go look them up if you like, but it was something like 36% of the pop was silver, and 41% bronze, with 13% green. That means the average district had 18 silver per side, ~20 bronze per side, and ~7 green per side. Since there's only 5 gold on each side, and it was easy for one side to be in the middle of a mission when the other finished, so they'd rarely actually be able to be pitted against each other. The game then had to either not give them anything to do for 30+ minutes, or throw scores of low-threat players at them, which is what happened most of the time when we'd actually get opp. This is terrible for the bronze and green players, as if you think you have it bad as a silver, imagine their position.

Silver players spent most of their time fighting other silvers and bronze players, which means they were winning more than the average (note that at the time, gold players were winning ridiculously more than average, I won something like 90-95% of my matches). This is bad for the game, because for every individual that wins over 50%, there's someone losing over 50%. Anyone in the lower half of the skill bracket had to fight people better than them for the majority of their games, which leads them to quit pretty quickly.

Now, with segregation, most bronze players actually fight other bronzes for most of their matches. They'll get the occasional green, gold or silver, but on an average, it's far better for them. Silver players were getting a pretty even split of gold and silver, because there weren't enough gold players to keep a gold district running 24/7, which is what the most recent patch addressed. Now, you should be seeing more matches with silvers, with the occasional gold and occasional bronze/green. You should be much closer to a 50% win/loss ratio, which is better for the game as a whole.

Most people have a hard time accepting that they're not supposed to win the majority of their matches. After segregation, most golds I know went from winning 90-95% of their matches to winning ~70%, and now that there's enough golds to go around, I'm actually seeing 55-60%. District segregation is a great idea, and the more they tweak it, the more effective it gets. There simply needs to be a way to keep the better players away from the worse players in order for the worse players to have an enjoyable time, and district segregation is doing a much better job of it than without it.

Lusts

Posted 21 April 2012 - 08:31 PM

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I didn't read it, but I just wanted to point out. I don't inhabit a silver district because I want to. I'm a gold who actually clicks on the big button to automatically recommend a server for me and it pops me into a silver district itself. So honestly, half of us golds aren't in a silver district cause we want to be, even though it can be a curse to be a gold. Some of us just happen to be put into a silver district.

oblo

Posted 21 April 2012 - 10:47 PM

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The segregation is far from ruining the game. The reason that mid- to high-golds get opp regularly now isn't because the game throws low-threat players at them more often, matchmaking is essentially the same as before segregation (I actually think matchmaking was tightened up, meaning now it takes less of a gap before you're able to call backup, which is a good thing). We get more opp now because there's more higher threat players in the same district, which means matchmaking can actually find players to put against us.

Before segregation, with roughly 10% of the population gold, that means an average server had 5 gold players per side. I forget the exact numbers at the time, I can go look them up if you like, but it was something like 36% of the pop was silver, and 41% bronze, with 13% green. That means the average district had 18 silver per side, ~20 bronze per side, and ~7 green per side. Since there's only 5 gold on each side, and it was easy for one side to be in the middle of a mission when the other finished, so they'd rarely actually be able to be pitted against each other. The game then had to either not give them anything to do for 30+ minutes, or throw scores of low-threat players at them, which is what happened most of the time when we'd actually get opp. This is terrible for the bronze and green players, as if you think you have it bad as a silver, imagine their position.

Silver players spent most of their time fighting other silvers and bronze players, which means they were winning more than the average (note that at the time, gold players were winning ridiculously more than average, I won something like 90-95% of my matches). This is bad for the game, because for every individual that wins over 50%, there's someone losing over 50%. Anyone in the lower half of the skill bracket had to fight people better than them for the majority of their games, which leads them to quit pretty quickly.

Now, with segregation, most bronze players actually fight other bronzes for most of their matches. They'll get the occasional green, gold or silver, but on an average, it's far better for them. Silver players were getting a pretty even split of gold and silver, because there weren't enough gold players to keep a gold district running 24/7, which is what the most recent patch addressed. Now, you should be seeing more matches with silvers, with the occasional gold and occasional bronze/green. You should be much closer to a 50% win/loss ratio, which is better for the game as a whole.

Most people have a hard time accepting that they're not supposed to win the majority of their matches. After segregation, most golds I know went from winning 90-95% of their matches to winning ~70%, and now that there's enough golds to go around, I'm actually seeing 55-60%. District segregation is a great idea, and the more they tweak it, the more effective it gets. There simply needs to be a way to keep the better players away from the worse players in order for the worse players to have an enjoyable time, and district segregation is doing a much better job of it than without it.

I appreciate you taking the time to reply in full like this.... But it's definately not my experience with the game since threat segregation and it won't get the people back who left because of it.

Before 1.70 I was bordering silver/gold for months and it didn't matter where I went, gold/silver/bronze district, the opposition was always at least partially gold, it's still like that, the only difference now is that you don't know if the gold players you're facing are going to be good or not because there's just too many of'em. So yeah, I'm still bordering silver/gold meaning I went from the old gold 2-3 to the old silver 9-10+ in a matter of days, I don't feel like I've gotten worse though, not that that really matters, I don't care all that much about my own color, I do care about my friends quitting the game because they got fed up with the hassle of trying to find a district where we can all get full rewards without it being empty or very one-sided: last two nights recommended dropped us either in a close too empty gold district or a full bronze (!) one when all of our team were high silvers/low golds, both of those situations suck pretty much for anyone involved really.

In order to have fun we have to manually choose a fully populated gold or silver server meaning there's always people in our group who have to take a reduction in rewards and guess what? We don't like that, at all.

Before 1.60 we just played, had fun, end of story. I don't see how that was worse.

/edit: So yeah, what I'm really annoyed with mostly is the money-making, I mean like: I buy a 4-slot car on Armas and I want to fill those slots, back in the days I would have done some ram-raiding on my crim, not really an option now with the trollfest laundry has become (can be fun at times though, it just doesn't get you rich anymore) so the only real option left is doing missions and there I feel I got two choices, get full rewards but no fun or have fun and get pathetic rewards. When the matches still are mixed gold/silver teams against mixed gold/silver teams wherever we go why do we need to take a hit in moniez just because somehow the game decided the district where those matches happen isn't appropriate? It just doesn't make sense...

Either you get rid of the matchmaking trying to balance things because you know what rating your district is and that should keep the balance (don't think that's a good idea) or you get rid of the rated districts because matchmaking will try to balance the matches anyway (would suit me just fine): having both those system going against eachother just leads to very ugly results as far as I see it.

-Rachel-

Posted 21 April 2012 - 11:40 PM

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and does a much better job at keeping green/bronze players from having to face us. That's definitely a win on both accounts.

Verifiably false with every thread like this one or complaint in district chat that higher threat players are stomping around in lower threat districts. The segregation is an illusion created by penalty driven colored districts that are still chalked full of players of all threats regardless.

Eruka

Posted 22 April 2012 - 12:29 AM

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You know I'll never play in gold district because of 2 reasons:

- One you already know from a different threat, because of the fail matchmaking 90% of all missions I get there are 1v1 (or if I'm with a friend it's 2v2. A bit better but still crap). I like massive fights with more than 5 people at each side. This is a MMO right? So I want to see masses in action and to be a part of them.

- 2nd one may sound a little bit selfish but it is.... fun. I like when everything happening in games is close to reality. It's not real when everyone is just so skilled and good as in gold district. Everyone knows what to do, no one ever makes mistakes etc. I like when teams are mix of good and not-so-good players, it makes things fun. Yes there are many golds in silver district but most of the time matchmaking puts several of them in one team BUT also in the other team too. Complete imbalance when there are only golds on one side and only silvers in the oposite are rare. Very rare. So yes I like to have several silvers and several golds in one team, this is the most fun game setting I can find in APB. I want to go in fight, meet a couple of silvers and squash them like bugs only to meet their gold after and sink in a dangerous duel.

And by the way don't worry about being killed by golds in your silver district. By fighting a stronger enemy you learn much faster and sooner will become gold too.

Rebelliousness

Posted 22 April 2012 - 02:01 AM

district recommendation put me two times yesterday in bronze districts (even tho there were at least silver districts available).. trololol.

And what do I do then? Right, since I don't have any other choice and it's "working as intended" I stomp the crap outta noobs. Sorry 'bout that. Thank the developers for that.

^THIS is APB. And THIS mommyty behavior by the vast majority of players is WHY they have to create a green/bronze district for less than rating 100 (on ENTIRE account), as well as find some way to eliminate the game of noob-stomping, progression blocking, and easy unbalanced wins. I am a lousy bumps between bronze and low silver player which gets DESTROYED. If I join a silver server as a low silver, I get forced losses as am kicked from almost every mission even before I drive to an objective. I also get kicked while bronze on bronze districts by the flaming high silver and gold idiots that are trolling.

All this system does is SCREW the lower end casual and new players HARD and UNFORGIVINGLY, while nearly every post caters to the unique problems of the GOLD assholes.

"Now looking back, it makes complete sense why all the old employees left. G1 has completely destroyed the masterpiece this game could have been..." -Flylow

Rebelliousness

Posted 22 April 2012 - 02:08 AM

...And by the way don't worry about being killed by golds in your silver district. By fighting a stronger enemy you learn much faster and sooner will become gold too.

This is such a load of patootie! Especially for the Bronze districts just as rolled by golds (and silvers) We keep geting screwed in so many ways. Our ranking suffers. Our progression is blocked. We get hopelessly rolled. We get team kicked repeatedly as players try desperately to get the higher silver and gold ranks on their missions. We get trashed, insulted, ROFLStomped...

this doesn't help anyone learn anything. It's just a real stumblingblock to the lower level players. Who knows how well or poorly we actually play since so many gold opponents with unlocked power weapons like nade launchers and OSMAWs roll us off the map.

It WOULD be worthwhile to have an open threat level district choice, with advanced rewards. But also should have at least a protected noobie district, as well as one protected mid-range bronze/silver district in which NO GOLD on an account nor lvl 150 or higher would be allowed on.

AT LEAST!~ Let the gimpier players have a damn chance to actually get better and not be non-stop rolled.

Edited by Rebelliousness, 22 April 2012 - 02:39 AM.

"Now looking back, it makes complete sense why all the old employees left. G1 has completely destroyed the masterpiece this game could have been..." -Flylow

Eruka

Posted 22 April 2012 - 08:55 PM

Eruka

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953 posts

Joined 31-August 11

Rebellious do you think it was different before the new district system? No it was even more unbalanced because the district were all the same - greens and golds were boiling in one jar. And guess what? From that jar good players you can see now were born. They are good not because they were given a chance and tools to play in peace from all those already skilled players. They are good because they managed to get better no matter what? beat those bad players and becomes good themselves.

Rikard86

Posted 22 April 2012 - 11:05 PM

Rikard86

Ascended

Reloaded Mod Squad

2775 posts

Joined 23-January 11

You guys have yet to understand that whenever a Gold joins a Silver district the rating goes up, and whenever a Green joins a Gold district the rating goes down. All you need is a Trainee in a Gold district to screw up the district TL in a way that it shows up Silver. At that point, any silver player joining that district is going to be matched against Gold oppositon all the time and blame them for playing in a 'Silver' district, while it's actually a 'Gold+1 trainee' district.

Same thing goes for the opposite, too - a bunch of Golds in a Silver district will bring the rating up so much that any Gold playing via Recommended will end up there. The district is now a Gold district and Gold players have all the right to stay there.

I routinely get placed in Silver districts as a Gold (I usually group with Silvers) and find people of all colors there, to the point that I'm starting to think that the whole "Gold GTFO" thing is an excuse.

The game determines district TL via mathematical average which does not distribute skill levels in the correct way, and while a computer will not fail its calculations, it will always answer wrong if you feed it BS. Remember that.

n3xn3x

Posted 23 April 2012 - 02:11 AM

n3xn3x

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627 posts

Joined 25-February 12

there might be also people who are friends and want to play together.. so one is silver.. one is gold..
ahhh so they are not allowed to play together?? seriously that would fu*k up this game sooo much..
and if the gold one is maxed there is no reason that the other one gets reduced rewards.

cheers

edit...
kicking players from missions is actually some issue that must be fixed in some way..
if they are afk or giving up that mission -> thats a reason for me to kick them
also if you tell them stop rushing in kill task and the next thing is they take a car and run into a group of 3 or 4 is pretty anoying -> so ignoring the team is also a reason to kick...

but i also have to say i am quite pissed of all the flaming and griefing.. always you get confronted with that.. would be so nice to see more friendly gamer in san paro.

SpanishGamer

Posted 23 April 2012 - 02:54 AM

SpanishGamer

Novice

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38 posts

Joined 09-August 11

I personally go to a bronze district because ltl is underpowered to mommy and even at bronze i sometimes will get killed by a rating 9 with the allmighty STAR XD silver maybe but than again silver is full of golds and i cant wish to stun a gold unless their those golds -.- who have gold but dont deserve it.
Now golds beying in silver district well thats just g1's fult, why put seperate districts for golds / silvers / bronzes if ur gona let anyone join any district? its so fking pointless. and only now with the 1.7 update and the new contacts we are seeing gold district get more full cos golds dont want to lose standing to lvl up the new contacts just for beying in a silver district. but after they all get to 215 theyll go back to silver district to make sure they dont lose their presious !!!!! GOLD ( which is just nathing but a gold symbol beside ur name...) gold is overated.

Shaolinie

Posted 23 April 2012 - 04:15 AM

Shaolinie

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1432 posts

Joined 01-December 10

Solution to this would be:

1. Hard locked instances by threat - no matter who is in the district threat will stay the same
2. Rewards based on opposition not on instance threat - not fair to get reduced rewards in silver playing gold vs gold and yet if that is 1v1 gold v silver then gold should get reduced rewards while silver - increased
3. Instances for players below certain rank - this way they will get to know game mechanics better before they get to face people that know this game in and out - 10 matches to determine threat is not an option - people roll with better players or cheaters to start gold and then get rolled or players get lucky get rolled and then just leave game and all those threats appear - EU2 has no players (yeah and who's fault is that - darned "elite" players)
4. Increase in rewards when facing equal or harder opponents - will be great incentive to play in own threat level because even if you lose you still get decent rewards because not it is easier to go to silver and considering you are good then you will get more kills and more often wins making you getting bigger rewards than having hard match just to earn a tiny bit more and that is if you win.
4. Hide threat level from player and then add more uncertainty to accounts. I am really sick of being gold - either no opposition, 1v1 or getting hard match and likely a loss meaning lower rewards

killernerd

Posted 23 April 2012 - 05:30 AM

killernerd

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1735 posts

Joined 28-November 10

Solution to this would be:

1. Hard locked instances by threat - no matter who is in the district threat will stay the same2. Rewards based on opposition not on instance threat - not fair to get reduced rewards in silver playing gold vs gold and yet if that is 1v1 gold v silver then gold should get reduced rewards while silver - increased3. Instances for players below certain rank - this way they will get to know game mechanics better before they get to face people that know this game in and out - 10 matches to determine threat is not an option - people roll with better players or cheaters to start gold and then get rolled or players get lucky get rolled and then just leave game and all those threats appear - EU2 has no players (yeah and who's fault is that - darned "elite" players)4. Increase in rewards when facing equal or harder opponents - will be great incentive to play in own threat level because even if you lose you still get decent rewards because not it is easier to go to silver and considering you are good then you will get more kills and more often wins making you getting bigger rewards than having hard match just to earn a tiny bit more and that is if you win.4. Hide threat level from player and then add more uncertainty to accounts. I am really sick of being gold - either no opposition, 1v1 or getting hard match and likely a loss meaning lower rewards

i don't like the logic behind your post. Hard locking instances is fine, though the total amount of golds is far too low to sustain such a system.I can stand my own in a golden instance, but we all grow tired of fighting the same group/person constantly.If you would really deny all acces to lower threat instances then gold players would only be able to join 1 or 2 instances per map and those are either full or empty. If we're lucky there is one with a decent pop.

The other problem i have with your system is that it will make playing with friends impossible. Just say you want to tag along with a group of silvers, to have some good old fun. But you either can't or will get even less reward because you are fighting other silvers. That's just messed up.

So far, the best idea i have heard is to lock the instances up to R50 (or R100) where they can join IF they want. Don't force them but if they want to fight along people of the same R level then let there be one. Make it account wide, as suggested before, so you can't join anymore when you passed the R50 (or 100) mark.

I say R50 because most people tend to know at least a bit of this game when they're halfway through the contact tree...